Benefitfocus CEO Shawn Jenkins holds up a birthday gift from Abigail Lee, 4, who recently finished her last round of chemotherapy.

Typically a birthday involves presents, perhaps lots of them. Although that was certainly the case July 27, in the seventh floor atrium of the Children’s Hospital, there was nothing typical about the birthday bash held for Shawn Jenkins, the Charleston businessman who recently donated $25 million to MUSC’s new Children’s Hospital, now named in his honor. For starters, rather than receive presents, Jenkins used the occasion to give them — more than 2,300 toys donated by his company, Benefitfocus.

Jenkins credits his daughter, Olivia, with the idea. “I was talking with my daughter, who volunteers here at the Children’s Hospital,” he said. “She was telling me how a lot of presents usually come in around the holiday season, but during the summer there aren’t as many. So, we sent an email out to all the Benefitfocus associates around the country and around the world asking them to donate toys. That was just two weeks ago, but the response was overwhelming. It was just a spur–of–the–moment idea, but here we are.”

Shawn Jenkins co-founded Benefitfocus in 2000, just after the dot-com bubble burst. Today the company canvasses 40 acres on Daniel Island.

Shawn Jenkins carries eight pages of paper with him wherever he goes.

From family vacations to international business trips to the day his company went public on Wall Street, he makes sure that those eight pages – now yellowed with two decades of time and travel – remain close at hand. They are, after all, where this chapter of his life began....Continue

Highlights from the dedication ceremony of the new MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children's Hospital, named in honor of Benefitfocus CEO Shawn Jenkins, whose donation to the Medical University made the new hospital possible....Continue

Thursday saw the MUSC Family celebrate the naming of the new children's hospital in honor of Mr. Shawn Jenkins, founder and CEO of Benefitfocus, a Charleston-based human-resources software firm. ...Continue

Charleston, S.C. – May 14, 2015 –The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) today announced a $25 million gift from Charleston businessman Shawn Jenkins to help build the new MUSC Children’s Hospital in downtown Charleston. Jenkins’ gift was made public during the MUSC Board of Trustees meeting on May 14, 2015, and is the largest philanthropic contribution in the Medical University’s history....Continue